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Location Tracking: Apple (And Google) Has Some Explaining But It's Probably Nothing We Need To Worry About

It's been confirmed through a photo that the President of the United States has an iPad 2. Obviously, Mr. Obama is not the first head of state to use an iPad nor will he be the last. And dozens if not hundreds of law makers also make use of Apple's revolutionary and "magical" (not my word) device in the course of service to the public. And with the news that the iOS device, specially the iPhone, may be keep information about the whereabouts of the user in a file on the iPhone and iTunes profile, is this a danger or violation of privacy that we need to worry about?

No. It's a concern. If it's a bug, it needs to be fixed. If there is something more to it than that, we should get to the bottom of this. Google's Android, its openness is debatable, is not curated and, it soo, also record geolocation of its users.

To be fair, I like to see all mobile companies get an opportunity to defend this specific practice before we go nuts about it. And I like to see Facebook explain their views in this matter as well. It's likely that the social network, with a history of violating its members' privacy, will become a major mobile player, either as a content and platform provider or quite possibly as a mobile OS provider one day.

I do hope that if various hearings that being planned in the US, Europe, and South Korea are about getting to the truth and not to be used as an ax to grind for whatever political and/or economic reasons.

Right now, I'm not worried in the least. Not with iOS or Android. And if President Obama isn't worried, nor should you.